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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 19, 2016)
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | August 19, 2016 | PAGE 11 ...Union-busting bakery accused of wage theft From Page 1 THIS NEWSPAPER BROUGHT TO YOU BY AMERICA’S LABOR MOVEMENT … AND BY OUR ADVERTISERS. LET THEM KNOW YOU APPRECIATE THE SUPPORT! legal question: whether Oregon manufacturing employers must pay time-and-a-half for both hours worked beyond 10 in a day and hours worked beyond 40 in a week. A “frequently asked questions” web page pub- lished by the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) says employers must pay one or the other, whichever is greater, but not both. But attorney Spencer-Scheurich, deputy di- rector of the Northwest Workers' Justice Project, says the agency is providing erroneous advice. The lawsuit also accuses Port- land Specialty Baking of ille- gally discouraging workers from using sick leave they’re entitled to under an Oregon law that took effect Jan. 1. A points-based at- tendance policy at the company assigns disciplinary points and/or written warnings when employees use their legally pro- tected sick leave, the suit alleges. Plaintiffs are asking the court to bar further violations and or- der Portland Specialty Baking to pay the unpaid wages, civil penalties equal to 30 days wages, and attorneys fees. For the seven named plaintiffs, the unpaid wage claims total $3,300 and penalties total $17,808, ac- cording to the suit. But plaintiffs are also asking the court to cer- tify the suit as a class action on behalf of all current and former employees of Portland Specialty Baking — several hundred workers in all. The lawsuit comes after Port- land Specialty Baking workers voted 123 to 38 vote not to join Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers, & Grain Millers (BCTGM) Local 114. Union or- ganizers said they had over 60 percent support when they re- quested the union election on Jan. 11, but after a consultant-led anti-union campaign, just 23 percent of the workers voted for the union in the Feb. 4 election. In charges filed with the Na- tional Labor Relations Board (NLRB) afterward, Local 114 accused the company of numer- ous violations of federal labor law leading up to the election, including: threatening to dis- charge workers and close the plant if the union won, transfer- ring and re-assigning workers to interfere with union activities, removing union literature from the break room while allowing antiunion literature, and promis- ing improvements if workers re- jected the union, such as more desirable work assignments, a fixed 40-hour week, higher hourly wages, and more lan- guage interpreters. Portland Specialty Baking settled all the charges on July 18 with a promise not to do those things in the future, to post a no- tice to that effect, and to return a worker to his former job and re- move disciplinary notices from another worker’s personnel file. But on Aug. 4, Local 114 filed new NLRB charges, accusing Portland Specialty Baking of wrongfully terminating two union supporters on June 19 and July 21.
